Post navigation

On Black Friday Where’s The Rush To Buy Mets?

Today is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year and I wonder how many are rushing to buy Mets’ tickets?

Today is a missed opportunity for the Mets, who have done little marketing for tickets. You see something on Mets.com and SNY, but there’s not been much, or any, blitz that I can see.

There are six papers that cover the team full time, and each of them today should have an ad in the sports section. There are countless other papers – dailies and weeklies – in the tri-State area that should have a Mets’ ad today and until Christmas.

Let’s not forget the radio and TV stations.

There should be a Mets store in Grand Central, or Times Square, or in the lobby of the Marriott Marquis.

The point is the shopping season is upon us and the Mets must send out reminders they are still here. Chris Young is not much of a shout out.

Nobody will drive out to Citi Field to buy tickets. It’s just not practical. But, of the dozens of significant malls in the area, I’ve never seen a Mets kiosk to purchase tickets. If there has been, and has been significant advertising I missed, then I apologize.

But, I’ve seen nothing.

I have a few old Mets Yearbooks and they have photos of the caravans the team used to have. No longer. They cut them out and instead had an event at the New York Public Library. No more.

Why not?

Early in their existence the Mets needed the attention and sought out the buying public. Let’s face it, they are no longer the hot ticket in town and must hustle again.

Yes, it will cost them some money, and quite honestly, the $7.25 million they’ll give Young would be better spend on marketing.

Start the caravan again and bring in players past, present and future to sell their brand. Station players in the mall kiosks for free autographs.

The Mets are a brand worth keeping, but they can’t expect the public to run to them at this stage, not with them dormant in the free agent market.

The Mets, until they start winning and competing, must reach out to the pubic now like any other struggling company seeking to improve their business.

The malls will be packed today and there will be a few in a sporting goods store getting a Mets T-shirt, or cap, but nobody is rushing to buy tickets.

Every now and again I think about marketing tecniques, and feel that when they are in spells like the one they’re in now, they should reach out to local schools, boys and girls clubs, etc., and give away thousands of tickets. Put some young kids in the stands, maybe creating lifelong fans. The kids would likely spend 10 bucks a piece and even if the Mets didn’t make money, they’d collect in the future. The stands would not be so embarassingly empty, and it’s a win win for all. It’s not like they’d be giving tickets to fans that would otherwise buy them, but giving tickets to kids who will become fans because of the gift.

Also, in regards to the seats behind HP. It is sad that there’s rarely anybody sitting in them. When it becomes abundantly clear that those seats are not going to be sold, they should be given away to the local Fireman, police departments, civil servants and such. It would be a nice gesture. It could pump up the team. It would look a lot better on TV. And, the Mets would get some decent press, which as we all know is a tough thing nowadays. Another win win IMO. Once the brand takes off and the team is right, obviously the seats will start to sell themselves, but until then, they should give back to the tax payers, who payed for the good portion of the stadium. Wouldn’t it be nice, when watching the game on TV, to see raucous Mets fans behind HP? Getting after the opposition, the officials, and rooting for the team. They’d likely spend 30, 40 bucks a piece on concessions, making it a profitable venture in the long run.

megamets: I like your passion. The problem with constantly giving away free tickets is it pisses off those that have to pay for them. Then they drop their tickets and the whole thing starts again. As far as the seats behind the plate, they are already sold and can’t be re-sold unless the owners sell them back to the Mets. Most of those are corporate purchases and used a write-offs. The corporations don’t really care if the tickets aren’t used.-JD